Chapter 17: Geoffrey (with a G)

Thursday, December 6, 1990

"Good morning, Jonathan! Pancakes?"

"Sure, Tony. How was dinner with Sam?"

"It was great. She's acing all her classes, just like you." Tony gave the batter another stir and began pouring.

"My stellar academic skills had to rub off on her sometime," Jonathan joked, taking a sip of the orange juice Tony had set out for him.

"Tell you the truth, I think it's because she's not dating anyone. She always gets so boy crazy."

"Maybe she should talk to Mom."

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, just as Mona walked through the back door. "Coffee, Mona?"

"Don't you think she's been acting insane ever since she started dating Andy?" Jonathan continued.

Mona grabbed a mug from the dishrack and poured herself a cup. "That's right, kiddo. Your mom is cracked. Thankfully, Jack is holding things together at the agency. He'll be getting a massive bonus this year."

"She's letting her work suffer?" Tony flipped a pancake.

"She's just not as on top of her game as she should be," Mona explained. "Now Jonathan, how was dinner at Andy's?"

"It was alright. He wants to take me to a football game. I don't know why."

"He's getting close to your mom, and you're part of the package," Tony said, serving Jonathan an extra-large pancake. "I can do eggs if you want."

"Scrambled, please. I don't understand why I have to be involved. He showed me the guest room like I'd be staying there. He even mentioned that he lives in our school district."

Mona and Tony exchanged a worried look over Jonathan's head as Tony pulled the eggs out of the fridge. "Maybe he's just getting ahead of himself, Jonathan. You don't know what it's like to be a man in love."

Jonathan pushed his plate away. "If she moves in with him, I'm staying here with you," he said, retreating from the room.

"Have a good day at school," Mona called out. "I'll take those eggs sunny side up," she said, picking up Jonathan's fork and eating the leftover half of the pancake.

Tony cracked two eggs into the hot pan. "Guess I said the wrong thing."

"Do you really think Andy is in love with Angela?"

"He told her he loves her last weekend."

"Whoa! Did she say it back?"

"As of Tuesday, no," Tony signed. "It came out in therapy. Things got prickly at the end of our session. We're actually going back today and doing two sessions a week going forward."

"How did that come about?"

"Well, Angela was yelling at me, and we went over time. I think our counselor just wants to pick things up as soon as possible."

"Tony, what did you do?"

"I mentioned something that happened recently. Something that Angela wanted to stay secret." Tony slid the eggs onto Mona's plate and set the pan back on the range.

"You ought to know that hand jobs are not part of the mistletoe tradition," she advised, sipping her coffee.

Tony sat down. "She told you? After the dressing down she gave me for telling Dr. Sweetin?"

"I heard you two fooling around. And if you plan to do anything like that again, please find a more private place."

"We're not going to. I feel bad enough about what happened."

"Well, I think it's a good sign that Angela agreed to double up on sessions after you spilled the beans. Maybe she's starting to come to terms with reality."

After Mona left, Tony cleaned up and turned his attention to academics. If the kids could get straight A's, he could power through and focus on his finals and term papers.

That evening, Tony picked up Angela at the train station, as was becoming their routine on therapy days. "I want to talk about Geoffrey."

"Now?" Angela asked, powdering her nose in the vanity mirror.

"You look fine. Not now, with Dr. Sweetin."

"Why?"

"Because I have some things I want to say about it. I think it's relevant to the situation we're in now."

Angela put her compact away as Tony pulled his Jeep into a parking space. "Fine, we can talk about Geoffrey."

"Welcome back, folks. When we left off on Tuesday…."

"Dr. Sweetin, I don't want to pick up where we left off. Angela and I have agreed to talk about her ex-boyfriend Geoffrey."

"Alright. I'll let you take the lead, Tony."

"We were in our friends' wedding, and I run into this guy at the buffet table. He was full of questions and wanting to meet Angela. I sort of pushed her into dancing with him because I was frustrated about some comments other guests had made about us being there together."

"Weddings tend to bring up a lot of emotions. Angela, how do you remember that time?"

"Tony and I really enjoyed helping our friends plan the wedding, but it brought up some of my feelings about possibly getting married again."

"Me too."

"Anyway, Geoffrey and I did hit it off and see each other for a few months."

"Seventeen weeks."

"Jonathan and I had Christmas dinner with his family. It was quite fancy, but I missed being home. Mother wouldn't even come along."

"He gave you those huge diamond earrings."

"Right, but those weren't the best gift I got that year," Angela said softly, nudging her shoulder into Tony's. "He sold his only baseball card to buy me a gorgeous Tiffany vase."

"That must have been a valuable card. Who was the player?"

"It was me. It was my card, the only one I had left. I got a call from some memorabilia dealer saying he'd give me a bundle of cash for it."

"The guy made $100 off me," Angela laughed. "But I'm glad things worked out the way they did."

"That was the best gift I've ever gotten," Tony said, putting his hand over hers.

"Sounds like it was a nice holiday. Why didn't that relationship work out for you, Angela?"

"Oh, right, we were talking about Geoffrey. There were a couple of problems. Jonathan and Sam didn't really like him. And he was really touchy about his things."

"We did total his brand new sportscar."

"It was insured, and I paid the deductible," she defended. "I think I actually sabotaged the relationship by getting overly excited about the idea of him proposing. When he actually did, I wasn't ready to accept."

"Would more time have made a difference?"

"No, I don't think we were a good fit. He adored me, but he couldn't please me, if you know what I mean."

"Sexually?"

"It was just boring, missionary, over-before-I-got-warmed-up sex. And he only wanted it once a week."

"I see."

"Well, Tony talked me into saying no, and then there was no reason to keep seeing him."

"Tony, why did you talk Angela into turning down Geoffrey's proposal?"

"If Jonathan had him for a stepfather, he would have turned out to be a real stick in the mud."

"As opposed to having you provide balance?" Dr. Sweetin clarified.

"Yeah. The kid needed me. Still does."

"Any other reasons?"

"Well, I could tell there was no lust, no want there. Angela seems buttoned-down, but she's a very passionate person underneath it all."

"Did you know this at the time?"

"I could tell the first time we kissed."

"On her birthday?"

"No, at camp when I was eleven and she was thirteen. She told me her name was Ingrid, and she kissed like she had an extra set of lips."

"Oh, I wasn't aware you were childhood sweethearts."

"We weren't. It wasn't until my son went away to my old camp that we figured out we had met before."

"Fascinating. Now, back to Geoffrey's proposal. Tony, was there any part of you that was jealous?"

"Well, yeah. After what happened with Michael, I didn't want to leave her again."

"Had you been jealous before the proposal?"

"I guess you could say that. There was one time we all ended up at the Fairfield Inn, Angela and Geoffrey in one room and me and an old flame in the room next door."

"This was unplanned," Angela insisted.

"Well, it wasn't easy to perform knowing that she was in bed with him a few feet away."

"You wanted to be with her?"

"I've always been attracted to her."

"Did you ever get the sense, during that period of time, that attraction was reciprocated?"

"I think she had feelings for me, more than an attraction."

"What made you think she had feelings back then?"

"She threw a party to thank me for supporting her in starting The Bower Agency. Between that and Christmas, it seemed like something was growing between us."

"Tony, do you feel like there's still something between you? As though Andy is the same kind of obstacle Geoffrey was?"

"I do. Because she never said she loved Geoffrey, and she still hasn't said she loves Andy."

"Andy's different. I have feelings for him that I didn't have for Geoffrey!"

"You have great sex with him. That's not going to keep you together. Look how hot and heavy you were with Michael, and he still left you."

Angela let out a guttural cry and hunched over as if she had actually been punched in the stomach. Tony dropped to his knees in front of her and grasped at her hands.

"I'm sorry. You know I blame Michael for everything. It's not your fault he left."

Tony put a hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry," he repeated, moving to kiss her softly on the lips, then sitting back on the couch.

Dr. Sweetin scribbled furiously in her notebook before checking her watch. "We'll have to stop there. I'm looking forward to continuing this discussion on Tuesday."

She watched from the door as the two walked hand-in-hand down the hallway and then turned on the security monitor. They went through the reception area and got into a black Jeep in a nearly-empty row of the parking lot. She couldn't see them with such low resolution, but the car didn't move for quite a while.

"You kissed me," Angela told Tony from the passenger's seat.

"Yeah, I kissed you, and I'm not sorry," he responded. "I'd do it again."

"Would you?" she asked, turning toward him. "Please?"

Tony leaned over the center console and pressed his lips against hers, pulling back after a moment, then leaning back in. Every time they tried to part, one chased the other back. "Break up with him," he panted after a few minutes. "I want you. Be mine."

Angela sat back and caught her breath. "I'll think about it," she promised.